Scanning systems using laser beams for reading and/or writing are well known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,916 to Robert H. Landsman, which issued Dec. 26, 1981, entitled Pneumatically Actuated Image Scanning Reader/Writer, shows a pair of mirrors mounted at opposite ends of a rotating shaft. The shaft is hollow, is mounted on air bearings, and is rotated by air that is fed into the hollow portion of the shaft and is exhausted through inclined portholes in the rotating shaft. The discharge of air through these inclined portholes rotates the shaft. The scanning action of Landsman involved both rotation and translation of the shaft. To effect translation, the said Landsman patent employed a differential air pressure system as a part of the rotating shaft.